Frontenac Bird Studies

Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Seabrooke Leckie)

I have no idea where the last two weeks went! We’ve completed visits 4 and 5 to all of our MAPS sites and not a word was posted here about it – until now. Our fourth round of visits were done during the heat wave when the ghastly humidity forced to shut down a bit early at Maplewood and Rock Ridge. Temperatures were more moderate during visit 5 but we ended up with even lower capture totals despite logging more net hours at both stations!

I’ll start this summary of round five with the Rock Ridge (RRID) station in Frontenac Provincial Park. The weather was perfect and post-breeding dispersal was evident for the first time in 2010. Our first Yellow-billed Cuckoo of the year was banded along with small numbers of the usual suspects.

Early morning along the ridge (Derbyshire)

The day started off well with lots of young birds moving along the ridge – primarily Eastern Towhees, Yellow Warblers and Pine Warblers. The first half of the morning was quite productive, which was followed by the latter half ending with five consecutive empty net rounds – a record for us! We finished the visit with 17 total captures – 3 less than visit 4 when the heat and humidity were extremely high. On the bright side, we’ve somehow eclipsed last year’s pace at Ridge Ridge in terms of total birds banded and recaptured.

juv Pine Warbler (Seabrooke Leckie)

This juvenile Pine Warbler is the first we’ve captured at any of our MAPS stations! Pine Warblers nest in the tall pines on either side of the ridge near the banding station but they never seem to come down low enough to be captured. It makes sense that our first would be a dispersing youngster, which are less tied to the canopy foraging.

Adult Veery in moult (Derbyshire)

Our fifth visit to the Blue Lakes (BLAK) station was somewhat shocking as it ended up being the slowest day we’ve had since we started MAPS in 2009! The Black-throated Blue Warblers that were abundant earlier in the summer had vanished and the morning had this eerily quiet feel to it. The Veery, like the Black-throated Blue Warbler, was a dominant species earlier in the season but were noticeably missing during visit 5. We did recapture one Veery during the morning, an adult male in the midst of basic moult.

Chestnut-sided Warbler (Seabrooke)

Always nice to find Chestut-sided Warblers in the nets. This male was recaptured for the first time since it was banded in mid-June. Fortunately there are still a number of these holding territories on the shorelines of lakes and ponds in the area. We ended visit 5 with 8 birds captured in six hours of sampling – REALLY quiet. I’m looking forward to getting back there to see how the season unfolds.

Scarlet Tanager (Seabrooke)

We can always expect birds at Maplewood (MABO)! This is the most consistent station of the three in our MAPS network. At the end of the day we tallied up the results and noted that 22 birds were captured, which is a quiet day for MABO. We sampled the first real wave of young birds at the station in 2010, which included this juv Scarlet Tanager as well as American Redstart, Hairy Woodpecker and Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.

Other noteworthy records included our first captured Ruby-throated Hummingbird of the year and two more Scarlet Tanagers! Multiple Wood Thrushes are still singing at the site and at least one Wood Thrush youngster has been banded in 2010. The exodus of Veerys at Blue Lakes is being echoed at MABO where the species was not encountered at all during visit 5. The Veery is normally an abundant species at MABO but our results in 2009 and 2010 have suggested widespread breeding failure. The weather conditions in both years have been atypical and likely a factor impacting nest success for at least some species. It will be exciting to begin analysis of the data after a few more seasons, preferably with more ‘average’ conditions. I will be particularly interested in statistics on survivorship, productivity and recruitment for Veerys.

Filed under: M.A.P.S

Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer)

As we are already into visit 4, I thought I’d better wrap up visit 3 to MABO and RRID in one summary. The visit to Maplewood Bog on June 29 was a unique MAPS experience for me because for the first time I was all by myself! Our first priority is to perform net checks at frequent and regular intervals of no more than 25-30 minutes, which is a challenge without multiple personnel. I was able to do this during visit 3 but felt the fatigue of near constant motion for the six hours of the fieldwork!

The weather was damp and cool with intermittent drizzle, keeping bird activity low and giving me some extra time to race around the net circuit. I was somewhat shocked that I’d processed 27 birds that morning – a not too shabby total considering the conditions. I had no time for photos with the exception of an irresistible Spring Peeper that clung to the stem of a shrub near net 6. As usual, an excellent variety of birds were captured including a female Scarlet Tanager, the first juvenile Wood Thrush of the year and a second-year Veery that was banded as a young bird in August 2009!

Maplewood Bog – Visit 3 of 7

New birds banded (19 of 11 species)
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American Redstart – 1
Northern Waterthrush – 1
Red-eyed Vireo – 3
Song Sparrow – 2
Wood Thrush – 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1
Scarlet Tanager – 1
Gray Catbird – 2
Eastern Towhee – 1
American Robin – 5
Blue Jay – 1

Recaptures (8 of 6 species)
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Northern Waterthrush – 1
Red-eyed Vireo – 1
Gray Catbird – 1
American Robin – 1
Veery – 2
Wood Thrush – 2

Black-throated Green Warbler (Seabrooke Leckie)

Our first ever Black-throated Green Warbler (Dendroica virens) was banded at Rock Ridge during visit 3 this past week. Black-throated Greens are regular breeders in Frontenac Provincial Park, particularly in areas with mature conifers and dense canopy cover. Overall, things are moving along nicely at this site as young birds are beginning to appear in numbers. Another male White-throated Sparrow was banded (below) while a tan-morph individual was spotted carrying food in an area of juniper scrub at the north edge of the station.

Red-eyed Vireo (Seabrooke Leckie)

Red-eyed Vireos are more commonly heard and captured than seen at Rock Ridge. There are a few pairs occupying young deciduous patches of Sugar Maple-Oak. Growth rates are very slow here so it might be more accurate to describe the forests as ‘low’ instead of young as many of the trees are probably 50-80 years old but appear much younger. Blue-headed Vireos also breed in this conifer dominated eastern edge of the park but we’ve not encountered any so far at Rock Ridge.

White-throated Sparrow (Seabrooke Leckie)

A total of 25 birds were captured during visit 3 – a very good sample of what is present. We captured several young birds including individuals of Eastern Phoebe, Black-capped Chickadee, Field Sparrow, Song Sparrow and American Robin – all early nesting temperate migrants. There has been little sign of productivity so far for any neotropical species at the three stations. The extraordinary amount of rainfall in the month of June may be influential to productivity indices in 2010 – visits 4-7 should be instructive.

Rock Ridge – Visit 3 of 7

New birds banded (17 of 12 species)
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Black-throated Green Warbler – 1
Common Yellowthroat – 1
Field Sparrow – 2
Black-capped Chickadee – 1
Chipping Sparrow – 1
Eastern Phoebe – 1
Red-eyed Vireo – 1
Song Sparrow – 2
White-throated Sparrow – 1
Hairy Woodpecker – 1
American Robin – 4
Common Grackle – 1

Recaptures (8 of 6 species)
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Common Yellowthroat – 1
American Robin – 1
Red-eyed Vireo – 1
Chipping Sparrow – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 2
Eastern Towhee – 1

Filed under: M.A.P.S

Yellow-throated Vireo (Seabrooke Leckie)

Visit three to Blue Lakes happened late last week. A definite highlight of the day was the capture of three adult Yellow-throated Vireos (2 new and 1 recap) and the discovery of a nest with young in the crown of a large Red Oak near net 1! We’ve banded the male and female tending the nest but also captured a new gravid female (carrying egg) in net 1 around mid-morning. We suspected at least a couple of pairs were in the area but the appearance of a gravid female so close to the nest of another pair seems rather curious. Very cool to have this species around and in numbers too!

Juv Downy Woodpecker (Derbyshire)

The morning’s work went smoothly and a steady trickle of birds were handled over the six hours. Despite that multiple territories of Black-throated Blue Warblers are present within the station boundaries, we have only managed to band and recapture the one male and female individual. We are starting to wonder if the other singing males are unpaired.

We’ve now completed nine visits to all three stations combined and are not even halfway through the season! The remaining visits to each station will be interesting as adults move or reestablish territories and this season’s crop of young birds begin to disperse. The month of June was extremely wet and it remains to be seen how this has affected nest success for landbirds in Frontenac County and beyond….

Blue Lakes – Visit 3 of 7

New birds banded (18 of 12 species)

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Field Sparrow – 1
Red-eyed Vireo – 1
Ovenbird – 1
Swamp Sparrow – 1
Yellow-throated Vireo – 2
Veery – 1
Downy Woodpecker – 2
Song Sparrow – 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak – 3
American Robin – 2
Blue Jay – 1
Common Grackle – 2

Recaptures (6 of 5 species)
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Black-throated Blue Warbler – 2
Yellow-throated Vireo – 1
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1
Downy Woodpecker – 1
Ovenbird – 1

Filed under: M.A.P.S

Spruce Bog at RRID

After a quiet first visit on June 11th, the Rock Ridge station returned to form on June 20th as 23 birds were captured during the morning. We thought last summer was unusually wet but this season has been even more drenched with rain seeming to fall consistently on a semi-daily basis. Fortunately, we have completed all of our visits within the intended periods but only by a thin margin and with thanks to a bit of luck. The photos accompanying this update are all landscapes as Seabrooke had a Canon malfunction, which erased all of the avian portraits from the day. This week, on our way in and out of the station, we paddled past this bog/fen habitat with Black Spruce, Tamarack, Sundew and Pitcher Plants. Common Yellowthroat, Wilson’s Snipe, Swamp Sparrow and Red-winged Blackbird are a few of the species nesting within the wetland complex below the steep cliffsides of the site.

The morning started off slow with an eery dawn silence and nothing captured on the first net check. For a second I considered that winter survivorship may have been particularly poor for our resident breeders but this was instantly erased with a net round at 730am when fourteen birds were extracted – nine coming from a single net! We were also pleased to finally recapture some birds banded in 2009, three in all. The full summary of the birds captured is provided below. The list represents a good sample of the breeding birds present at the station with some notable exceptions. Scarlet Tanager, Pine Warbler, Purple Finch and Myrtle Warbler are also common but tend to stick to the high tops of conifers that line both sides of the gorge, making them difficult to catch for banding. These species will move down with fledged young in search for better feeding areas so hopefully we will band a few before the season wraps in early August.

Mixed forest along the ridge

Rock Ridge – Visit 2 of 7

New birds banded (20 of 11 species)
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Field Sparrow – 2
Black-capped Chickadee – 6
Red-eyed Vireo – 2
Hermit Thrush – 1
White-throated Sparrow – 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch – 1
Common Yellowthroat – 1
Chipping Sparrow – 1
Eastern Towhee – 2
American Robin – 2
Common Grackle – 1

Recaptures (3 of 2 species)
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Black-and-white Warbler – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 2

Filed under: M.A.P.S